I've always liked working with metal and tinkering. I like making my own custom drum hardware and discussing drum hardware and I see a lot of other people on this board like working on their own hardware as well. DIY projects save money and allow you to create drum set arrangements not possible with off-the-shelf hardware. You can see this hardware on my set at http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18719. If you have a hardware mod - even if it's humble duct tape - this is the place to share it. If your lock nut is stripped and you need help, hopefully you will find some help here. If you'd like to do something but you're not sure of how to proceed or what tools you'd need, this is also a place for answers.

I can tap, thread, cut, bend, weld, drill, roll rings and hoops and even do a little milling. However, my metalworking skills are very crude compared to what a professional machinst could do. But I am able to make my own custom stuff, do any repairs and my work has held up well to the abuse of drumming.

Below is a recent hardware project, a triple cymbal stacker. Most stackers keep your cymbals like five feet apart, or there is no offset. I used 1/4 inch steel rod, some extra-deep nuts, 8 mm bolts, a MIG welder and a few other items to make these stackers, which have about three inches of distance and offset. I can pick out the cymbals individually, or do a dramatic rake of all of them. Knurled Allen bolts keep the stackers from spinning loose. All washers are welded to the nuts and all felts are glued to the washers, minimizing the amount of small pieces to drop.

While your idea isn't technically hard, it is accessible to just about anyone and you showed a lot of ingenuity in figuring this out, especially since you don't do this a lot and used simple tools. I don't think a mod or DIY should require a flux-core wire-feed MIG welder to be good or useful (although it sure helps me sometimes!). In fact, simpler and cheaper is better. It's fun to use the fancy tools but I sometimes have to pull myself back and force myself to use the simplest approach possible, even if it involves nothing more than a razor and pliers.

Thanks for putting the link here. I bet there are a lot of other threads with a single DIY project that could/should be linked up.

Senior Member

Platinum Member

I got a new custom drum kit with an 18-inch bass drum, ordered without spurs to minimize penetrations. I looked at all the stock options for raising the drum but couldn't find anything I liked. Either I'd have to drill a bunch of holes in the drum or I'd have to schlep around a 50-pound cradle.

So I used my hoop roller and welder to make my own cradles. I went to a local gasket maker and got this really thick neoprene to create clearance for the tuning bolts, then put Velcro on the bottom of the hoops and top of the cradles. I put scratchy Velcro on the bottom of each cradle so it grabs on to carpet. I love Velcro and use it for just about everything. One of the cradles has a "foot" welded on for the bass drum pedal clamp.

This works well. I can actually leave the cradles on when I put the drum in its Hardcase and the Velcro holds everything together. The steel flexes slightly, allowing just a little give and bounce as it suspends the drum. It's all painted dark silver/gray - chroming is way beyond anything I could do.

Platinum Member

For about 10 years, I used one of the enormous and heavy LP Gajate foot pedal mounts for percussion items. I noticed that I never did adjust it and it was a pain to carry around, being about the approximate size of a Scud launcher. So I thought to make my own out of a section of steel beam and some 3/8 inch rod. A bit of tapping and threading secure it to itself and the pedal.

While it is not at all adjustable, it doesn't matter because I raise or lower the beater for different size percussion items.

Bracket mounted to pedal

Tambourine mounted to bracket

LP block mounted to bracket

Cowbell mounted to bracket

F

fourstringdrums

Guest

For about 10 years, I used one of the enormous and heavy LP Gajate foot pedal mounts for percussion items. I noticed that I never did adjust it and it was a pain to carry around, being about the approximate size of a Scud launcher. So I thought to make my own out of a section of steel beam and some 3/8 inch rod. A bit of tapping and threading secure it to itself and the pedal.

While it is not at all adjustable, it doesn't matter because I raise or lower the beater for different size percussion items.

Platinum Member

I'm not sure about the materials cost. I go to the local scrap yard a couple of times a year and pick up odd pieces of metal as well as various size rod. Maybe a couple of dollars for these particular pieces and the bolts, including a couple of mounting rod prototypes that didn't work out. It took about three hours to make from start to finish, including perfecting the design and some brief trials. I like doing this kind of thing so the time isn't an expense anyway.

I think a Gajate is now around $89, at least for the original model. They have a revamped model that isn't quite so ginormous and that goes for around half that.

If you have a vise, hacksaw, tape measure, large pliers, propane torch and a file (just about every garage does), you could be doing some basic stuff like this, especially simple percussion mounts. Music shops sell chrome 3/8" rod but it's very expensive. You could get hot-rolled rod at the hardware store for much less and, with the tools above, you could bend it to your custom specs. If you add in a cheap $10 tap and die set from Slave Harbor Tools (www.harborfreight.com) you will be able to make an exponentially greater variety of mounts. If you like puttering and making things, this is just plain fun, as you know from the clever auxiliary hihat mount you came up with

My next post will be a simple percussion mount requiring only basic tools.

F

fourstringdrums

Guest

I'm not sure about the materials cost. I go to the local scrap yard a couple of times a year and pick up odd pieces of metal as well as various size rod. Maybe a couple of dollars for these particular pieces and the bolts, including a couple of mounting rod prototypes that didn't work out. It took about three hours to make from start to finish, including perfecting the design and some brief trials. I like doing this kind of thing so the time isn't an expense anyway.

I think a Gajate is now around $89, at least for the original model. They have a revamped model that isn't quite so ginormous and that goes for around half that.

If you have a vise, hacksaw, tape measure, large pliers, propane torch and a file (just about every garage does), you could be doing some basic stuff like this, especially simple percussion mounts. Music shops sell chrome 3/8" rod but it's very expensive. You could get hot-rolled rod at the hardware store for much less and, with the tools above, you could bend it to your custom specs. If you add in a cheap $10 tap and die set from Slave Harbor Tools (www.harborfreight.com) you will be able to make an exponentially greater variety of mounts. If you like puttering and making things, this is just plain fun, as you know from the clever auxiliary hihat mount you came up with

My next post will be a simple percussion mount requiring only basic tools.

Wow, you do brazing. I'm too lazy to try gas welding, although I admire the neatness of gas welds. I use flux-core MIG welding which takes relatively little skill, but the drawback is the welds aren't as attractive.

Brazing is a whole other area to get into. How did the legs break? Unfortunately, stands are made of low-grade pot metal that is relatively soft and doesn't weld well.

Platinum Member

Wow, you do brazing. I'm too lazy to try gas welding, although I admire the neatness of gas welds. I use flux-core MIG welding which takes relatively little skill, but the drawback is the welds aren't as attractive.

Brazing is a whole other area to get into. How did the legs break? Unfortunately, stands are made of low-grade pot metal that is relatively soft and doesn't weld well.

Well, I'm about as good at MIG welding as a blind amputee with Parkinsons

It was the joints at the base, I can't really remember what exactly happened. I think the rod that was used as the pivot on the folding legs (which was welded into place) bent or something and the leg was stuck. I remember that it was something that was fixable, but I was too lazy and decided the stand didn't work well enough, nor did I have a real need for it.

Brazing is great, it's s much stronger. About 3 years ago in school I made a big bike out of 1 1/4 inch tubing, and there was going to be so much stress on some joins that MIG welding may not hold, so I had to learn to braze. It also looks great, because the colour difference, and it doesn't get bubbles like MIG welding can.

The engineering course I'm staring at Uni has a team that builds and races a car in a national competition which I'm going to try and sign up for this year. They fabricate just about everything themselves except some components and things that need to be made from CNC billet aluminium.

Platinum Member

Well, I'm about as good at MIG welding as a blind amputee with Parkinsons

It was the joints at the base, I can't really remember what exactly happened. I think the rod that was used as the pivot on the folding legs (which was welded into place) bent or something and the leg was stuck. I remember that it was something that was fixable, but I was too lazy and decided the stand didn't work well enough, nor did I have a real need for it.

Brazing is great, it's s much stronger. About 3 years ago in school I made a big bike out of 1 1/4 inch tubing, and there was going to be so much stress on some joins that MIG welding may not hold, so I had to learn to braze. It also looks great, because the colour difference, and it doesn't get bubbles like MIG welding can.

The engineering course I'm staring at Uni has a team that builds and races a car in a national competition which I'm going to try and sign up for this year. They fabricate just about everything themselves except some components and things that need to be made from CNC billet aluminium.

Man, if you made your own bike frame with brazing, you have some serious skills. There are a few times when I would have preferred brazing, like for joining thin tubing that would be destroyed with welding, or joining two different metals. Brazing is excellent for all kinds of stuff.

I encourage you to share more of your drum hardware mods, or start getting busy with some - you obviously are at a high skill level and have access to some great tools.